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| January 29,
2009 - I guess the deafening silence when he left the chamber was a
pretty good indicator of things to come. He was voted out 59 - 0.
Nobody wanted to go on the record in his defense, despite all that he
claimed to have done, and how unfairly he said he was being treated.
If anybody has reason to fear what Blagojevich might tell Fitzgerald about
how politics in Chicago has worked during his career, he's likely to be
motivated to bring down others too. Will he do it quietly as a plea
deal, or try to create a public scandal with whatever he knows? Does
he still actually believe that he did nothing wrong, and will be vindicated
in federal court? We shall see. |
What will
Fitzgerald do not? Whatever it is, it will likely be done quietly
out of the political spotlight over the months ahead.
At least now the Illinois government can get back to the real
business at hand, including a budget disaster which has been brewing for
several years now. |
| January 29,
2009 - Congratulation to
Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News analyst, for once again hitting the
nail precisely on the head immediately after the impassioned plea before the
Illinois Senate today by Governor Rod Blagojevich about his innocence and
the inappropriateness of impeaching him. As he
observed, Blagojevich wasn't really speaking to the Senate, which is nothing
new. He was using this media event to reach the potential jury pool in
Chicago, and to tell his side of the story without having to take the oath,
and without any cross-examination as would occur by the federal prosecutor
in a court trial. He was free to tell any anecdotes he wanted about
Illinois citizens, his family history, getting coffee for US Senator Warner,
and to muddy the waters by saying that some of the things he advocated were
suggested by Rahm Emmanuel and supported by governors of other states.
As usual, he was fairly eloquent in his arguments that he is somehow an
unfairly treated victim in all this, who was just trying to do good for
ordinary people in Illinois like himself.
The silence was deafening as he left the chamber. I
didn't hear anyone applaud his performance. Will this ever become a
jury trial? Probably not. He was just buying himself a little
insurance in case that happens, as with his national media PR blitz this
week. He was talking to the jury pool. Assuming that he is
eventually indicted, don't expect him to testify in court on his own behalf.
He is more likely to try to negotiate a plea deal, and then quietly help
Fitzgerald to bring down others.
In any case, Blagojevich is still fighting. He
didn't accept that it is time to resign. That would defeat his purpose
of trying to persuade the real criminal jury pool in advance of his
innocence. |
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| January 12,
2009 update - The 114-1 impeachment vote last week was quickly followed
by a decision in the Illinois Senate to punt this problem until after the
inauguration ceremonies so that it won't continue to be an embarrassing
distraction for Obama. Similarly, the US Senate accepted the Burris
appointment, which will limit ongoing national media interest in this story. |
Watch for a
rapid impeachment process in the Illinois Senate. Nobody is going to
want to give Blagojevich a soapbox for more bizarre media gamesmanship.
Enough English poetry already. |
| January 6,
2009 update - The appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate seat
vacated by Barack Obama has become an awkward political circus in Chicago,
Springfield, and Washington DC, as was clearly intended when Blagojevich
made this controversial move recently. It is a sad
reflection on Burris, after a long political career, that he chose to accept
such an offer. The fact that Blagojevich hasn't been impeached,
indicted, or convicted yet does not alter the fact that Burris has now
disgraced himself by quickly accepting such an appointment.
Even though he wasn't sworn in today as Senator, he will
likely be accepted at some point, and thus the state will soon have a weak
and ineffective Senator with no respect in Washington. He may be
seated, but he will be a pariah in DC for the next two years, and unlikely
to be elected. In effect, this problem will just be punted to 2011
while Illinois voters wind up with a very weak Senator in addition to a
corrupt governor who is just clinging to power for his own benefit.
This is just another example of politicians putting personal interests ahead
of ethics in public service.
Illinois already had a Senator who spent the last few
years campaigning for his next office after promising not to do so when he
was elected. At least Burris should know up front that he has no
political future in Illinois after this disgracefully unethical move to help
Blagojevich divert attention from his own problems. After all, he
already lost several elections without even being disgraced. |
Don't believe
the myth that there was fear of a special election to fill Obama's seat
because of the risk that a Republican might actually win. There was no
serious Republican candidate in Illinois who could beat the Chicago machine
in such a special election. It might happen by 2010, but not in any
quick election now. The awkward dilemma for the
Democrats is that a white Democrat might win - and thus Blagojevich played
the race card by picking Burris even though he had never been seriously
considered for the job.
This move blocked Lt. Gov. Quinn from appointing somebody
soon from among Blagojevich's many critics, regardless of race, as
impeachment moves forward. Payback to embarrass Madigan? |
| December
19, 2008 - Governor Rod Blagojevich has reached a new low today in his
statement to the press about the recent criminal complaint against him.
It is time for him to acknowledge that his continued service as Governor of
Illinois is not in the interest of the people of the state, even though it
may be in his personal interest to stay in office as he tries to fight these
charges. He could have acknowledged his breach of
trust and the higher standards for personal ethics which should be expected
of him as an elected official, as Gov. Spitzer did in New York recently.
He could have put the interests of Illinois ahead of his own personal
interests.
Instead, he was as defiant as a criminal who thinks that
his lawyer may yet find some way to win his acquittal, without really
addressing the question of whether the allegations against him were true or
not. He has offered nothing at all to substantiate the assertion of
his innocence. No alibi to explain his actions. Not even the
slightest apology for outrageous things he allegedly said.
"I will fight. I will fight. I will fight until I take my
last breath. I have done nothing wrong."
"I'm not going to quit a job the people hired me to do
because of false accusations and a political lynch mob."
No, he is going to force the Illinois legislature and the
US Attorney General to do all of the hard work at great expense over the
months ahead to throw him out of office. Hopefully they will not only
succeed, but will also put him into jail for a very long time.
Presumably he thinks that this strategy will leave him in a stronger
bargaining position to cut a deal of some sort.
Hopefully there will be no plea deal for him after such
conduct today. If he wants to fight this to the bitter end, then
let him spend a very long time in prison to think about the higher standards
which elected officials should uphold, even in Illinois. If he wants
to go to the mattresses in this fight, then send him to
prison for as long as possible as an example for others in public service.
If he wants any leniency, then show some responsibility.
Resign now, without any plea deal. Otherwise, one can only hope that
Patrick Fitzgerald will win this fight and that the judge will show no mercy
in sentencing. There should be no deal. On the contrary, he
should be formally indicted as soon as possible, and the impeachment process
should move forward quickly too |
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| Disclosure: this
private
business does no business with the state of Illinois or the city of
Chicago and is not a
political organization or donor to any. The views expressed are
those of an independent conservative voter in Illinois who has always
voted against Rod Blagojevich and now feels more confident than ever of
that judgment. |
|
| His comment
about his "enemies" was eerily reminiscent of President Nixon at the time of
the Watergate scandal, which seems to have been on Blagojevich's mind
recently. He talked about it on the day before the criminal complaint
was announced. At that time, Blagojevich insisted
that he had no problem with anybody taping his conversations, as they would
just find them boring, and that he had done nothing wrong and had nothing to
hide. The very next day, Patrick Fitzgerald produced some rather
sensational quotes from wiretaps which let the voters of Illinois see a side
of the governor which was even shocking to those who have come to regard
political corruption in Chicago and Springfield as so routine that it isn't
even newsworthy.
Now, he will evidently fight to challenge the legal
authorization for those wiretaps in order to block their use as evidence
against him, or to at least complicate the pending impeachment process. |
| The thanks he
expressed today to his continued supporters seemed delusional. Does he
really believe that there is some sort of "silent majority" of Illinois
voters out there who still support and trust him? He presumably still
has a few loyal friends, but they have been remarkably loathe to speak out
in public on his behalf recently. Who will go "on the record" to
defend him now? |
| The lowest
staff member in any state government office owes a duty to the people of the
state to not violate the trust which has been placed in that person to do an
honorable and effective job for the good of the people of the state, rather
than to act for personal power or financial gain. A governor should be
expected to live up to a much higher standard of conduct in office. |
| The standard
of conduct which is expected of any public official, no matter how junior,
is not simply to carefully avoid doing anything for which one could be
indicted and convicted. It is not a criminal process in which any
conduct which can't be proven to be illegal is deemed to be OK. One is
expected to adhere to higher standards of conduct than convicted criminals.
Yes, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to show that
the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt through the force of very
solid evidence of wrongdoing. If that were the only standard for
ethical conduct by elected officials, however, then the mere avoidance of
any solid trail of evidence would excuse any conduct, and many wrongful acts
would be excused as OK simply because they could not be successfully
prosecuted.
We expect higher standards of our public officials
than the mere ability to avoid prosecution and stay out of jail while
serving in office. Their legitimacy flows from our faith in their
responsible conduct as our representatives. It may be hard to impeach
or prosecute Blagojevich, but it is not hard at all to conclude that he has
clearly breached the faith which Illinois voters placed in him - especially
as a governor who alleged that he would reform corruption rather than lead
it. |
| This is not
about parsing words and fighting over how strong the legal evidence of
corruption may be in this case. This is about whether a public
official should have the decency to resign when he acts in a way which
dishonors the office to which he has been elected, and dishonors the people
who entrusted him with that office. He is not entitled to stay and
fight and try to vindicate himself at our expense just because it may be
hard to impeach him or to prosecute him. If we are to pay the bill for
this fight, including not only the direct costs but also the shame and
economic harm which it
brings on the entire state of Illinois, then we should be rewarded by his
very long tenure in jail. Think about this for a
moment. How much work to promote Illinois as a place for businesses to
invest and grow and create good jobs has just been destroyed by making
Illinois a national and global disgrace? What is the present value of
the investment and jobs which Illinois will lose because business leaders
will not want to risk doing business in such a political environment?
Perhaps the International Olympic Committee won't be
particularly bothered about the alleged corruption in Chicago, given the
history of their location choices, but business leaders have many good
choices available as investment alternatives to Illinois. This scandal
could be very costly. |
| This is still
government of the people, by the people, and for the people - not for the
political patronage and power ambitions of individuals. Rod
Blagojevich has not upheld the standards which should be expected of the
most junior staff member, much less a governor. How many parents in
Illinois or elsewhere are ashamed to even let their children watch the news
about him? He should do the honorable thing and
resign - quickly. Even President Nixon soon figured that out, as did
Spitzer after just a few days. If Blagojevich chooses to continue to
fight this as an impeachment and legal battle for many months, then one can
only hope that he will enjoy many long years in prison in which to
reconsider his continued poor judgment in office. |
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